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title: General management guidelines and leadership information
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This document sets out general guidelines for how the Transit project is
governed, managed and who constitutes the core leadership of the project.

All project members must act according to the
[Guidelines for Good Conduct in the Transit community](conduct.md).

Democratic governance of the Transit project
----------------------------------------------

Previously, the Transit leadership was a BDFL (Benevolent Dictator For Life)
arrangement, with the project's founder (Leah Rowe) having exclusive control
over the project and, while initially effective, was found to be
ineffective and counter-productive in the long term.

The old leadership structure has been **abandoned**, and Leah is no longer leader
of the Transit project. This decision was made democratically and
collectively, by the same overall standards set out in this document, with
Leah's direct approval and participation, in the best long-term interests of
the Transit project, where she agreed to stand down as project leader.

In principle and in practise, Transit is now a collectively and democratically
governed project. Any individual member of the community, regardless of their
current standing or reputation, can propose changes to the project (this
includes code/documentation contributions, project management decisions and
so on). The proposal can be absolutely anything, within reason where it is
relevant to Transit and could be beneficial.

All proposals are subject to review and approval by the community. In the case
of site patches, any member of the public can also voice their opinions on a
contribution; the patch will also be reviewed by one of the core maintainers
of the project. In the case of general project decisions, such as general
policies of the project and management roles (such as, removing a core member
who starts acting out of line with and/or in violation of project policies),
the decision will also be polled by the community, to assess public support for
such a decision. With public approval, and agreement among the core maintainers,
the decision would then be enacted, and it falls on them to implement the
mandate that was set, whatever that mandate might be.

Actual places to poll members of the public, shall be decided on by the core
maintainers (we'll probably just use IRC. We're a small community).

Those who are part of the core maintainers and core management team, can be
appointed and removed at the behest of popular public demand, with approval
from the current
core maintainers and/or management team within the Transit project.

Generally, the project should not have a single leader, but if such a role is
required in the future, it will be a rotating leadership, to be changed
after a certain period, subject to approval by the core maintainers and by
popular public demand. Exact infrastructure for how to cast such votes and
make such appointments will be decided at that time, when it becomes necessary
for the Transit project.

The *public*, in this context, refers to the members of the IRC channels that
we run.

Information about Transit's code review and code management guidelines
can be found
[on the Git section of the website](git.md#general-code-review-guidelines).

Information about core team members, responsible for the Transit project
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

- Alyssa Rosenzweig handles Communications and Public Relations\*, acting
  additionally as the official System Administrator for the Transit project
  infrastructure.
  IRC nick **alyssa** on Freenode.
- Leah Rowe is one of the core developers. IRC nick **\_4of7** on Freenode

All of the people above are moderators in the Transit IRC channel, and
form the basis of the project's collective inner leadership, responsible as
trustees for the project in ensuring the projects long-term success and for
general management of the project.

All core members have push access to the Git repository for Transit.
Additionally, Alyssa and Leah have SSH access (including root) to the main
server for Transit.org (this list will expand, if Alyssa and Leah both agree
and if it is appropriate, e.g. if more System Administrators join the
project).

Any member of the public can join this list, if they make substantial
contributions and the core team members agree to it. Transit's leadership is
open to the public.

Other team members (IRC operators) who also have influence:

- Not listed on the website, for their privacy.
